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Friday, July 30, 2010

Inspired by Penny Arcade's articles on sandbox gaming [herein defined as free form gaming with multiple plot threads in a prepared semi-dynamic world], and a general interest lately in content creation, I have been thinking quite a bit about a WHFRP campaign, set in southern Wissenland [the southernmost Elector State in the Empire]. Naturally, it would be supported by miniatures, terrain, and so on. (what good game is not?)

Chasing down information online about this sort of gaming, I read the 24 steps of creating a sandbox, as defined by Bat in the Attic, and immediately started to think of ideas and plot lines and so on to hook my PCs. Looking over a map of Wissenland, I decided that Wusterburg looked like a good center for action, with two rivers, the Black Mountains, and other interesting areas to explore and to place. This will also allow for some ruins/empty territory exploring as the area encompasses parts of former Solland. (Elector State ruined by Orcs in 1707 and now subsumed mostly by Wissenland)

This sort of gaming project has extra allure to me because it combines both world building and obsessive detail, both of which I enjoy. It is also useful at the current time, since the offspring makes any actual at home hobby time fleeting at best, and this can be pursued during lunch hours, with mapping and NPC creation.

Difficulties in creating a WHFRP campaign are many fold. First, I do not have any regular playing group. This could be a way to start gaming with some friends of mine. Second, I do not have all the WHFRP books, and would want/have to get more. For example including Skaven would mean that I need the requisite source book. (That the books are now out of print does not help matters any) Third, I have not GMed/DMed/Storytold before. Fourth, I just do not have much free time, and weekly gaming sessions would exceed the time I have. None of these difficulties are insurmountable, but they do make this project more of a fantasy than it would otherwise be.

In any case, this is where my hobby time has been lately, thinking about striking out into the wilds in the southern empire, righting wrongs, and exploring ruins.

As for painting, I have not touched a brush in months... well, a miniature brush that is. I have painted a patch on a wall, and rolled out some paint in the garage, but nothing miniature wise. I think that 2009/10 will go in the records book as the least productive painting year ever.